


Silence Kills

by Hollow_Fan_Soul_55



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 07:27:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17803640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollow_Fan_Soul_55/pseuds/Hollow_Fan_Soul_55
Summary: When Tim is sent back in time to when Jason is still Robin, will he be able to keep from changing his own past, or will he give in to protect those he loves at the possible cost of his future?





	1. Inspiration For

**Author's Note:**

> Because I'm avoiding homework that is due today and hate myself and my many things I have write, here's _another_ little Idea I have that I'd be willing to work on more if y'all really want me to. No promises on updates if that comes to pass, tho.

Biting your tongue  
so words don’t slip out.  
The taste of copper,  
sharp in your mouth.  
“Penny for your thoughts”  
the saying goes,  
but they could never afford  
the words buried below.  
Sentenced to silence,  
laid in unmarked graves,  
as you’re slowly murdered  
by the things you don’t say.  
~John Mark Green~


	2. Not Right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To the Past

You breathe in slowly, holding it until the edge of your vision blurs and shadows over and your lungs _burn_ , then let it out just as slowly. You repeat. They don’t understand what you are, you can see it in the way they _watch_ you. Your heart aches at how familiar everything is, but so _so_ different.

Like looking at a picture that has been blurred by time.

Bruce –not Bruce, wrong, wrong, not _right_ , not _yours_ – watches from the computer. To anyone _not_ trained, they’d think he was fully invested in the case on the screen. You _were_ trained, though, and what Bruce is doing now is the equivalent of him _staring_ at you until he catalogs _everything_ about you. You want to laugh at him, tease for being so paranoid, but the sight of a streak of color in his peripheral shoves it back down your throat like a hot brand of _reminder_.

It’s _Jason_ –little little little, alive and _bright_ – dressed as Robin. Cautious of you, wary and distrustful and it hurts, just a bit, that he’s looking at you like that. He skirts around the edges of the cave in the same way he would sneak across rafters eyeing henchmen. He freezes when he notices you’re looking, which has Bruce tensing up as well. Ready to jump up and _protect_ his little bird.

_Untainted untainted untainted!_

You cringe away from the thought, rising from the chair you were sitting on and smoothly setting off towards anything that isn’t _them_. You jerk and nearly cry when you see no display cases — turning around sharply from where they’re supposed to be and run squarely into Jason. Your arm snaps out automatically to grab him and keep him from toppling over and meeting the hard and unforgiving floor.

You keep your hand around his bicep just long enough for him to scramble and get his feet under himself before darting away a good two feet. You’re mindful of the way Bruce’s chair had scraped against the ground and the sharp glint of a batarang in his hand the second you touched Jason.

Jason has an equally terrified expression on his face as he puts another couple inches between himself and you. And why shouldn’t he? You’re not…okay, right now. Everything seems to clash and your emotions are scarily close to showing on your face.

You don’t want to know what would be there if your mask were to **break**. You just have to keep your mask ( _you still have your cowl on, no wonder they’re looking at you like you’re something not right, you’re **not**_ , a voice screams in his head) on until you’re alone.

Everything fuzzes around the cowl lenses. You reach up and tear it away from off your head, hand running through it as you keep a careful mind _not_ to pull and _scream_. Bruce and Jason are watching with wide eyes while you pace…unable to _stop_ when you could normally sit still for _hours_. You’re _good_ at that. Unlike–

You gasp sharply when pain flares along your ribs, arm whipping up to hold and apply _pressure_. That jerk-response sends a second wave up your spine, but you grit your teeth and _breathe through it_. You can feel the sticky patch on your suit where a bullet must have gone in before _this_ happened.

Out in your city.

You forgot about it — adrenaline high and mind unfocused enough that it slipped away.

It’s only a bullet, not even that _deep_ , you just forgot about it. Stumbling and hissing under your breath, you’re painfully aware of how Bruce is moving in your direction and Jason looks _worried_ and _scared_. You push it away.

Quickly, and you mean _speedster_ fast, you shuck the top part of your suit and twist despite the pain to look at the wound. There isn’t an exit point (you _knew_ that, but it’s good to check, you could’ve just _not_ noticed it) and it’s not near anything _dangerous_ or life-threatening so you reach for the forceps before sitting on the gurney to start digging for it. It’s shallow enough that it only takes ten or so seconds to pull it out — tossing it onto the tray beside the gurney and reaching for the butterfly bandages since you’re lucky enough the bullet was _small_.

You decide that wrapping it isn’t really necessary so you stand up and your world tilts when you look up, blinking quickly at Bruce and Jason. You hadn’t realized how close they had gotten. Bruce has this…deeply concerned and slightly disturbed look on his face, which just looks _wrong_ since he’s _Batman_ from the neck down. It’s a terrifyingly open look for your mentor –not yours, he isn’t yours!– to have.

Jason, on the other hand, has a completely disgusted look — eyes wide and nose scrunched up, face pale and hands clenched into Batman’s cape. Innocent. You twitch when the thought goes through your head.

Your mind runs through the possibilities and the situation; you’re looking at a _young_ Bruce and Jason, which means this is either an alternate reality or the past.

_You could stop it from happening_ , a voice whispers, _save him and Bruce. Reality or past it doesn’t matter, you don’t matter! All you’d have to do is–_

Your legs suddenly give out as your vision tunnels and fades out. You fall. Blood loss. The last thing you see is the sideways moving boots of _Batman and Robin_.


	3. Oddities

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason’s perspective on their current cave trespasser

Jason watches the sleeping teen’s face, eyes going from the long black hair to the winged red domino mask covering his eyes since _who wears two masks??_ He’s incredibly pale, with deep bags under his eyes that look like bruises just barely peeking out from under the mask…and under the white t-shirt and grey sweats Alf had put on him, were a map of _scars_. Knife, bullet, vines, claws, and so many others Jason can’t even begin to recognize.

Not even Bruce has as many as the teen seemed to, and he’d certainly never seen B _dig a bullet out of his own side_ before. Granted, Jason hadn’t ever seen a teenage vigilante stumble out of a monstrous purple and black portal in the middle of the Cave, either.

Jason trails his eyes to the thick band of metal cuffs linked around the edge of the bed railing and the teen’s wrists, and then the band of black leather strapping his shins down to the bed. Jason would call it major overkill if he hadn’t seen the teen walk around like a predator and a cold poker face that B wore on his _really bad_ days.

Jason leaned over the teen’s body the best he could to reach the cup of juice on the other side. The teen had already seen B’s face so Jason didn’t have to wear his Robin costume around…but they didn’t know who _he_ was. Jason suggested looking under the mask but Bruce shot it down.

He leans back and stomps over to the chair he’d rolled up from the Batcomputer and lays down on it, gulping down the drink. He sighs and curls up — determined to keep an eye on the teen until he wakes up.

He falls asleep.

And when he blinks his eyes open the teen’s head is tilted toward Jason……and he can’t tell if he’s awake or not. Jason straightens out and leans forward, poking the guy’s cheek with his finger. “You awake?” He whispers.

Nothing. Not even a _twitch_.

“Great.” Jason flops back down into the chair. He has come to the point in his life that he’s talking to an _unconscious person_. He groans and rubs the heels of his palm into his eyes. When had this become his life?

When he finally decides that it’s all Bruce’s fault and looks up again he freezes. The teen is sitting up –cuffs unlocked and sitting on the bed top, and his feet slipped out from under the leather band– rubbing his wrists.

Jason is man enough to admit he shrieks and kicks the chair back away from the teen. The teen doesn’t flinch, just turns and _looks_ at him — it’s a look he’s used to seeing on Bruce when he’s _Robin_. “Thanks, my head wasn’t already pounding or anything.”

The teen’s voice is shockingly deep for his size, but smooth and completely and utterly _bland_. He’s being _sarcastic_.

“How’d you get out of those?!” Jason asks, –yes, _asked_ , he did not _squeak_. That was just a well-timed bat overhead– eyes wide.

“I unlocked them.”

Jason squints. “How?”

“With these.” The teen holds up two small pieces of metal and just as quickly puts them _into his mouth_. Jason doesn’t have time to ask ‘what the hell?’ before the teen is passed Jason and _gliding_ over towards the computer.

“Hey!” Jason scrambles after him. “You can’t just _leave_. I’m on guard duty! What’ll B think if he sees you?” The teen _shrugs_ , like it’s not _his_ problem he’s up and walking, _because of course not_.

“Look,” The teen says, hands moving over the computer keyboard so quickly the computer barely has time to ask ‘what’s the password’ before _he’s in_. “I don’t know _where_ or possibly **when** I am, so I need you to be quiet for a few minutes while I check.”

_Bruce is going to kill him for this…_ “How'd you get in so fast? It’s encrypted by _Batman!_ ” The teen stills and looks over his shoulder, and then _huffs_.

“Not sure I could explain it before Bruce comes back. Besides,” The teen crooks the smallest smile — just a tilt of his lips. “I’m just not going to tell.”

Jason hisses, ready to lunge at him when the teen lets out a strangled sound he doesn’t seem to realize he made. He hears the teen mutter something that _sounds_ like a different language –Arabic maybe? Bruce has been trying to teach him what different languages sound like– and then spins around and barks: “Klarion!” in a deep _gravelly_ voice.

Jason gapes with an open mouth at the teen. _He used Bruce’s ‘I am the night! Fear and obey me!’ voice!_

Nothing happens for a second that feels like an _eternity_ and just when Jason thinks nothing is going to, this large orange _cat_ comes bounding from the _shadows of the supercomputer_ and _leaps all the way up_ onto the teen’s shoulders, wrapping around the back of his neck and staring at Jason with intense green eyes.

“Teekl,” the teen sighs, rubbing a finger under the cat’s chin. The fluffy feline looks big enough to not fit in Jason’s arms and makes a rumbling purr that sounds like it’s coming from a jet _engine_. “Please let me speak with Klarion.”

Jason doesn’t know what he was expecting the teen to say, or the cat to _do_ ……but, much to Jason’s _mounting_ horror, the cat’s turn a bright blood red.

And then _it speaks_.

_““Hello to you too, Red Robin. I see your journey was successful.””_

“Send me back to my own time, Klarion, or you’ll find out just how much I can _mess you up_ now.”

…….Wait. _What?_

The cat –Teekl? _Klarion!?_ – laughs this high maniacal thing that echoes through the cave without even moving its mouth. _““Oh, you wouldn’t do that, Red Robin, not with how it would mess up **everything else**. You wouldn’t want to ruin something for **them** , would you? No…you won’t do anything.””_

The cat’s eyes fade back to green before they close and it lays its head down on its paws. The teen’s shoulders slump just a bit. Not enough to offset the cat –Teekl, it has to be, the _voice_ belonged to whoever this Klarion person is– but enough to get a growl that sounds like a _predator_.

The teen holds out his arms and Teekl slides down into the nook made for it, looking as normal as a smug cat can. And despite the burning questions he _could ask_ , Jason schools his features and asks: “Is the cat a girl or boy?” instead.

The teen looks up from the cat and strains out a thin smile. “Teekl doesn’t like genders, he, she, or them works just fine. They don’t mind.” Well then.

“And are we just going to ignore the red eyes and talking thing?” Silence. Yup, they are. Great. “Fan-fucking-tastic.”

Unlike Bruce, the teen –Red Robin. Red _Robin_ , the hell– doesn’t even blink at his cursing, and Jason immediately brightens. “So you’re called Red Robin, huh?”

Red Robin, god that was getting tiring to say, tenses and pets Teekl a little harder, though the cat seems to enjoy it. “Yeah.”

Jason doesn’t let himself be deterred and instead flops down into the chair beside Red. “And how old are you?”

“Nope.”

“Why the Robin part of your name?”

“Not telling.”

Jason huffs. “How do you know Bruce, then?”

“He helped me.” That didn’t narrow it down at all. Bruce helps a lot of people as a Wayne _and_ as Batman.

“How?”

“Stop asking questions, Jason.”

“Why?”

“I said _stop_.”

“Why can’t you _tell_ me?” Jason growled, annoyed at Red’s weird aversion to answering simple questions. He must really be related to Bruce _somehow_.

“Because I can’t, _brat_ ,” Red snaps. “Now leave me alone.” Red strides away, but Jason jogs after him, only to have Teekl jump from his arms and Red to turn on his heel and snarl with his lips pulled back over his gums. Jason stops in his tracks. He may be stupidly reckless as Robin and as himself sometimes, but he knows a dangerous person when he sees one.

Red is a dark presence in front of him, and he knew if he pushed even a bit more Red might snap. He doesn’t think he would hurt Jason, but you never know for sure.

Red swivels around and stalks off, Teekl on his heels waving their tail. Jason stays rooted to the floor staring at Red’s disappearing back. He gets the feeling he fucked something up, he just can’t figure out what.


End file.
